The Crocodile at the Door: A Founder’s Guide to Thriving in the New Age of Google AI

A spectre is haunting the world of digital marketing: We are calling it ‘The Crocodile’.

It is a creature born of Google’s new AI-powered world, and its jaws are widening every day: On one side, you have search impressions, which are going up, on the other, you have website clicks, which are plummeting. You see for years, we have been told that visibility is everything, but what happens when you are more visible than ever, yet your audience is disappearing?

This is not a hypothetical problem. It is happening right now, and it is causing panic in boardrooms and marketing departments around the globe. Recent data paints a stark picture: some studies show that nearly 60% of all Google searches now result in zero clicks. For searches that trigger Google’s new AI Overviews, the average click-through rate for top-ranking pages has dropped by as much as 34.5%.

For years, the unspoken contract between Google and creators was simple: create good content, play by the SEO rules, and we will send you traffic. That contract is now obsolete; the algorithm has learned to cook for itself, and it is serving up answers directly on the results page, leaving content creators out in the cold.

The knee-jerk reaction, of course, is to fight, to try and game the new system, to find the next SEO trick, the next silver bullet. But that is like trying to outsmart a crocodile in its own river. You will lose.

I believe this is not a crisis, but It is a gift, a great and necessary correction.

For too long, we have been playing the wrong game: We have been creating content for machines, not humans, have been chasing keywords, optimising for robots, and churning out soulless articles in the desperate hope of pleasing an algorithm that was never really on our side.

We have been buying attention, not earning it.

And now, the game is up.

The Data Behind the Bite: Understanding the Shift

Let us be clear about what is happening. This is not a small adjustment; it is a fundamental rewiring of how information is accessed online. The table below summarises the seismic shift we are witnessing.

This is not just about Google. It is about a profound shift in user expectations. People are tired of wading through ten blue links of thinly-veiled sales pitches. They want answers. They want trust. They want humanity.

And where are they finding it? On platforms like Reddit and Quora, where real people share real experiences. Since 2023, traffic to these community-based platforms from search has exploded, with Reddit seeing a 603% increase. The message is clear: the algorithm is now rewarding authenticity, not optimisation.

What Google is Quietly Telling Us

Even Google, in its own way, is telling us to stop trying to game the system. Their official guidance for succeeding in this new era does not mention keyword density or backlink strategies. Instead, it advises creators to:

“Focus on making unique, non-commodity content that visitors from Search and your own readers will find helpful and satisfying.”

They are telling us to stop writing for them and start writing for our people. They are telling us that the quality of a visit matters more than the click itself, noting that clicks from AI Overviews are often “higher quality,” leading to more time spent on a site.

This is the heart of the matter. The Crocodile is not a monster to be slain; it is a guide, forcing us back to what truly matters: being radically, generously, and unapologetically human.

How to Tame the Crocodile: 5 Human-Centred Strategies for Founders

So, how do we thrive in this new world? We stop trying to please the algorithm and start obsessing over our audience. Here are five actionable strategies for founders, entrepreneurs, and brands.

1. Uncover the ‘3am Thought’

Your ideal clients are not searching for “holistic wellness solutions.” They are lying awake at 3am thinking, “I cannot keep doing this. I am so tired I cannot even play with my kids.” That is the pain. That is the urgency. Your marketing, your content, and your entire brand message must speak directly to that 3am thought. Forget what you sell; focus on the hurt you heal.

2. Create ‘Only-You’ Content

The expensive SEO software we have all relied on is becoming obsolete. AI does not care about your keyword score: It cares about experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). The only content that will survive is the content that only you can create. Your unique stories, your hard-won lessons, your controversial opinions, your specific framework, if your content could be written by an AI, it will be. It is time to double down on your own, inimitable human voice.

3. Build a Community, Not an Audience

An audience listens. A community talks back. In a world of zero-click searches, your website is no longer just a destination; it is a starting point for a relationship. Your goal is not to get a click, but to earn a follower, a subscriber, a member. Move the conversation to your own channels: your newsletter, your Slack group, your private community. Create a space so valuable that people would pay to be there, then make it free. That is how you build a moat around your business that no algorithm can cross.

4. Become Radically Generous

If your audience can get the ‘what’ from Google, you must give them the ‘how’ and the ‘why’. Go deeper. Be more helpful. Create content so good that people feel compelled to share it. Think checklists, templates, free workshops, and in-depth guides. The brands that win will not be the ones that hold their knowledge close, but the ones that give it away with open hands, confident that their generosity will be returned in the form of trust and loyalty.

5. Measure What Matters

Stop obsessing over clicks and rankings. These are vanity metrics in the new world. Start measuring what truly matters: engagement, brand recall, community growth, and, most importantly, the quality of the conversations you are having. Are people replying to your emails? Are they asking thoughtful questions? Are they telling their friends about you? These are the new key performance indicators of a thriving brand.

The Future is Human

The Crocodile at the door is a terrifying sight for those who have built their castles on the sands of SEO tricks and algorithm-chasing. But for those of us who believe in the power of human connection, it is an invitation.

It is an invitation to be more authentic, more generous, and more creative. It is a chance to stop shouting at everyone and start whispering to the right people. It is a reminder that the most powerful marketing has never been about being seen, but about truly seeing others.

So, my question to you is this:

If you stopped trying to please the algorithm, and instead focused entirely on being radically generous to your audience… what would you create?

References

[1] SEOTIMERS. (2025, August 2). 2025 Study: 60% of Global Google Searches Result in Zero Clicks. https://www.seoptimizers.ch/en/2025-study-60-of-global-google-searches-result-in-zero-clicks/

[2] Ahrefs. (2025, April 17). AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 34.5%. https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks/

[3] BrightEdge. (2025, May 15). New Google AI Overviews data: Search clicks fell 30% in May. Search Engine Land. https://searchengineland.com/google-ai-overviews-search-clicks-fell-report-455498

[4] Exploding Topics. (2025, September 24). The Great Decoupling: Why Zero-Click Searches Are on the Rise. https://explodingtopics.com/blog/great-decoupling

[5] Mueller, J. (2025, May 21). Top ways to ensure your content performs well in Google's AI experiences on Search. Google Search Central Blog.